GALION - Some students are on bouncy-ball chairs, a few are sitting on the floor in bean-bags and others with their feet on their desks — Galion schools have embraced the classroom of tomorrow.

"I get a lot more work done this way," said Amber Twigg, a freshman who was reclining on a bean-bag, laptop across her legs.

It's called "flexible seating," and it came to the Tiger school system last summer when Gina Redman, a teacher at the city's middle school, learned about the idea from one of her friends.

"That evening, I went and bought some bouncy-ball chairs," Redman said. "The kids just loved it."

The idea behind the concept is simple: Make the students comfortable so that they focus on their work, not on the discomfort of long days sitting on rigid chairs. School administrators agreed to allow any teacher to implement the new seating strategy, so long as students maintained an acceptable pace of learning.

"Now I'm always on a mission to find new stuff for my room," Redman said.

Since Redman introduced the idea last August, three elementary and two high school teachers have adopted the strategy. Molly Fairchild was the first. She converted her high school classroom in January.

Like all of the teachers who have implemented flexible seating, Fairchild was responsible for finding furniture on her own. In addition to donations, the teachers have combined to spend a few hundred dollars on their projects.

Buy Photo

Galion freshmen Kerrigan Myers, left, and Amber Twigg said they're able to concentrate more on their school work while sitting in bean-bag chairs instead of traditional, hard seats.(Photo: Zach Tuggle/Telegraph-Forum)

None of the classrooms with flexible seating look alike. Violeta Chinni, who primarily teaches French at the high school, filled her classroom in February with items that imitate scenes from the foreign-language textbooks.

"It was all about bringing more content to the classroom," Chinni said.

She uses a pair of director's chairs for students to sit in while speaking about French films, and a standing desk where they can practice purchasing tickets from a classmate who is pretending to be an Air France ticket agent There's even a small table with two chairs students might find on a Parisian sidewalk.

"We can pull those to the front of the class, and now we have a cafe scene," Chinni said. "It allows the students to role play. It was very important for this to be functional."

An important aspect of the project teachers have noticed is that students learn best from a variety of seating arrangements. They're allowed to sit wherever they'd like, and they will often pick a different seat each day.

"I have some students who just like the traditional seating," Fairchild said. "All of them learn in a different way."

The educators are noticing results from the new seating arrangements. All thought it's too soon to evaluate grading trends, the teachers all report their students are less disruptive, arrive to class earlier and produce much more thorough work.

"My idea is to teach them self-control," Fairchild said. "If they can sit where they want, they work to learn to control themselves."

The students agree, and appreciate the flexible seating arrangements. They find the format makes it easier to absorb their lessons.

"I think it's just the atmosphere," Twigg said. "We're not all cramped together at desks."

Sitting next to Twigg was Kerrigan Myers, another freshman. Myers was also relaxing atop a bean bag.

Freshman Asher Whited always selects a seat at a standing station in Fairchild's classroom. But he does sit, sometimes on a stool, other times on a bouncy chair.

"It's awesome," Whited said. "It's in the back of the room, and I can charge my laptop. I like the variation of the different chairs. It's comfortable. Every teacher should do this."

Ron Williams, the school's principal, said it's up to each teacher whether or not they implement the flexible seating. He's glad the the students — and their parents — are responding well to the idea.

"Kids are different now than they were 20 years ago," Williams said. "You have to adjust."

Teachers who chose to begin using the new seating arrangements only need to tell him, then start building their new supply of tables and chairs.

"Surprisingly, there are a lot of grant and donation websites out there that will help with that type of stuff," Williams said. "If a teacher wants to do this, then we will find a way to get it funded."